Too many days off for lazy sods
AUSSIES are a lazy bunch of sods! Any excuse for a day off. In fact, as a nation we would happily down tools to celebrate nothing more riveting than the opening of an envelope.
We can’t help it, it’s in our nature.
But with more public holidays already than we can poke a stick at, it left many scratching their heads when the Andrews Government declared the AFL Grand Final parade a public holiday in 2015.
Let’s face it, a grand final parade is about as worthy of a public holiday as the tide coming in at Queenscliff, the annual passage of Geelong’s Christmas tree from mothballs to waterfront or a train arriving on time — although I daresay the latter is definitely worth some degree of celebration.
It made no sense back then and it makes even less sense now, especially given the huge impact it has on the State’s economy ($1 billion loss annually) and the crippling effect on small businesses left battling to make up lost revenue because of it.
One political bright spark, in his attempt to justify the AFL parade holiday, waxed lyrical about how it would “help bring families closer together”.
Well, sure it does … if you’re a follower of one of the two teams taking part in the grand final, but those are a drop in the ocean compared to Victoria’s 6.359 million population and the countless businesses statewide already struggling to make a living.
And if Christmas, New Year, Easter, Australia Day, Labor Day, the Queen’s Birthday, Anzac Day, school holidays and weekends don’t already bring families together, then I doubt very much a footy parade will.
But it is the effect on small business that should have everyone up in arms.
For many Victorian businesses, the Friday before the AFL Grand Final was an excellent trading day.
But all of that has gone thanks to a public holiday, one neither warranted nor justified and that just happens to border on absurdity, leaving small businesses suffering significant cash flow losses due to no trade.
While casual staff lose wages because it is not viable to stay open, the overheads remain the same, with power, rent and fulltime staff wages having to be paid regardless.
According to the Australian Industry Group, the average loss in revenue per business as a result of this public holiday is around $57,500 and ranges from $1000 to well over $500,000.
And those who do choose to stay open face a bigger wage bill due to public holiday penalty rates.
The AFL Grand Final parade holiday is a complete and utter nonsense and, for the majority of businesses based outside the metropolitan area, there is absol- utely no benefit at all except to give staff a paid day off for no reason.
But then, as if not to be outdone by Victoria’s holiday farce, Prime Minister Scott Morrison recently called for a new national day to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people while defending his support for Australia Day remaining on January 26.
According to the PM, while he is still not sure what form or on what day a new public holiday would take place, it would need the agreement of all states and territories.
Well, it shouldn’t be hard to get approval for another day off in Victoria.
I mean, if the Andrews Government can give the state a day off for a footy parade, Mr Morrison’s suggestion, for another pub- lic holiday, which we need like a hole in the head, at least carries with it some sense of validity.
It’s time for the State Government to ditch the AFL footy parade holiday and, together with the Federal Government, start looking at ways to help and support small business in this country instead of penalising them at every turn with yet more public days off.
Small businesses help form the backbone of this country and you don’t need to be a Rhodes Scholar to understand that forcing them to shut up shop every time a politician wants to score a brownie point with voters is not the answer to a healthy economy.
As for the PM’s suggestion to add yet another public holiday to the calendar, I’d say this: Go to the top of the class, ‘ScoMo’, but don’t take your books, son — you won’t be there long.